BPN498: Integrated Silica Optomechanical Oscillators

Project ID

BPN498

Website

Start Date

Thu 2009-Jan-29 08:28:00

Last Updated

Wed 2013-Aug-14 17:24:55

Abstract

Optical microring/disk resonators are the central component in many micro-optical
applications, including optomechanical devices. Optomechanical devices that use light to stimulate
mechanical resonance have applications in displacement sensing, optical mixing, and reference
oscillators. High optical Q is necessary for these applications, so we are exploring the use of
silica, which has low optical loss. So far, using a wafer-scale reflow process, we have achieved an
optical Q of 15 million and have observed self-excited optomechanical oscillations. We have also
fabricated nitride optomechanical rings, which have lower optical Q but better phase noise performance
for self-excited optomechanical oscillations.